Monolith (computer program)

Monolith is a simple software tool to distribute copyrighted data without theoretically committing any copyright infringement. As the current legality of distribution of copyrighted works is quite ambiguous, the ideas presented and implemented by Monolith purport to further " [muddy] the waters of the digital copyright debate."

Jason Rohrer, who also created the fairly well known program konspire2b, designed and implemented the project.

Although the project has been fully implemented and can be put to use, no actual real life applications or projects have utilized it, at least to a large scale. As such, Monolith remains more a proof of concept tool to explore digital copyright boundaries.

Overview

The main objective of Monolith is to distribute copyrighted files, which is generally deemed illegal, in a circuitous manner as to avoid legal repercussions. Monolith achieves this by using the concept of a "basis" file and an "element" file. The basis file is a completely original copyright free, and thus freely distributable file, whereas the element file is the copyrighted file that the user wishes to distribute. Using one-time pad encryption on the two files, a process called "munging", essentially taking the exclusive or of the bitstream of the two files, a new file is produced that is completely unrelated to the original element or basis file. The new file produced - the "mono" file - is following the principles of one-time pad and can be decrypted into any file of the same length. Since it is unrelated to the element file, it can be distributed freely.

Background

The issue of home taping forms the premise of Monolith's operation. In the United States, and most countries with similar copyright laws, the act of home taping is illegal although rarely enforced and impossibly hard to do so. Major campaigns waged by the music industry, such as the Home Taping is Killing Music anti-piracy campaign, were the result of their inability to prosecute individuals and instead stop piracy through propaganda. Legislation such as the Audio Home Recording Act serves as a further measure to protect consumers from home taping prosecution, although this has never been verified.

Rorher explains that the concept of home taping has been moved into the public arena via the internet due to its open and public nature. And consequently, copyright holders can enforce existing legislation and prosecute copyright violators. Monolith, is an attempt to recreate the private and unenforceable home taping scenario while still using the internet as a transportation mechanism.

Legalities

As Monolith has received no widespread use, there have been no legal proceedings regarding it; consequently its legality is still quite obscure. From a technical perspective, Monolith should function as intended and not violate any copyright. However, as Rohrer points out, the real world mechanisms that are applied to copyright differ quite drastically from those in theory and any user of Monolith is cautioned that real world use may result in legal repercussions.

See also

* Software law

External links

* [http://monolith.sourceforge.net Monolith homepage]